Multisat Beginner - multiple LNBs?

Regular Member

Hi. I know that all these are likely very easy questions, but a bit of someone else's experience is worth a thousand Google searches sometimes!

I've currently replaced a minidish with a cheap 80cm dish (it's the one Lidl were selling last year) fitted with a quad LNB aligned on Astra2 - two outputs connected to two Sky digiboxes, both with excellent signal strength and quality. I'm now looking at having a third receiver (probably a Dreambox) and fitting multiple LNBs to the dish.

Ideally I'd like the receiver to be able to pick up Astra 1, Astra 2 and Hotbird. After a bit of reading around my guess is that I either need a 3 LNB mount of some kind - two standard LNBs with the quad - or a 2 LNB mount and use a monoblock LNB in combination with the existing quad. What would be best, and what would be cheapest - not always the same thing!

Presumably I'll also need a piece of kit to allow the receiver to switch between the two or three LNBs (unless it has two inputs, in which case the monoblock + quad might work - I have no idea if that is the case). What's recommended? Is it better to run two/three cables inside and then do the switching there, or do the switching near the dish and run a single cable?

Thanks in advance for any help offered! As you can tell I'm slightly confused...

Interesting, I was assuming that it was best to focus on the "middle" satellite cluster - is that because Hotbird is weak enough that a 6 degree offset would be tricky, and Astra 2 (even up north) is strong enough that a 15 degree sidebounce is still enough?

Diseqc switches appear to be quite easy to come buy (after a quick flick round the usual suspects) but I can't find many sources of offset arms - any recommendations?

More dishes than Sense.

Interesting, I was assuming that it was best to focus on the "middle" satellite cluster - is that because Hotbird is weak enough that a 6 degree offset would be tricky, and Astra 2 (even up north) is strong enough that a 15 degree sidebounce is still enough?

you learn fast, yes you might struggle in Edinburgh for 15deg separation on 80cm standard. 13E and 19.2E on one dish certainly, maybe 19E and 28.E one one, but maybe not all three. best to experiment. I was alwasy under the beleif that 80cm was required for 13e/19e on one dish, but i get away with 60cm.

Regular Member

Actually, that looks interesting. I'm not 100% happy with the cheapo Lidl dish anyway as it seems a teensy bit flimsy to have three LNBs hanging off it (pretty flimsy with one really), and that looks a bit more substantial. Anyone have one and can recommend it?

Is the extra 10cm likely to make a big difference to the ability to pick up 15 degrees of offset?

Believe it when I see it Admin.

Yes, the Gemini is a great dish for Trisat reception (I use them all the time), if you do decide to buy, please click on the Vision on 2000 banner at the top of the page, so that the adverttiser knows that it came from his ad on our site.